Sofia Kenin secured a victory in the first round against Petra Kvitova, a fellow Grand Slam champion, at the Miami Open presented by Itaú on Tuesday. This win leads her to a second-round match against Coco Gauff, another recent Grand Slam winner.

Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion representing the United States, defeated Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic, a two-time Wimbledon champion who recently became a mother, with scores of 6-4, 7-5 at the WTA 1000 hard-court tournament.

Kenin evened her head-to-head record with Kvitova, a former Miami champion, to 2-2. While Kvitova won in Miami in 2018, Kenin was successful this time in her home state of Florida.

Gauff awaits: Former World No. 4 Kenin is now set to compete against current World No. 3 Coco Gauff in an all-American second-round match. Kenin and Gauff have an equal record in their four previous encounters on the Hologic WTA Tour.

Their past matches include significant moments in recent tennis history. In their first match, Kenin overcame a one-set deficit to defeat Gauff on her path to winning her Grand Slam title at the Australian Open five years prior, in the Round of 16.

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Additionally, Kenin’s victory over Gauff in the first round of Wimbledon in 2023 motivated Gauff to make changes in her team and tactics. These adjustments contributed to Gauff’s impressive performance during the 2023 summer hard-court season, culminating in a Grand Slam title at the US Open.

In their most recent match, Gauff avenged her Wimbledon defeat by winning against Kenin in the first round of this year’s Australian Open with a score of 6-3, 6-3.

New mom Kvitova seeking a win: Former World No. 2 Kvitova, who won the Miami Open title two years prior by defeating Elena Rybakina, welcomed her son Petr in July of last year. Kvitova made her comeback to professional tennis less than a month ago.

The Czech player is still seeking her first victory in three matches since returning from maternity leave. She was defeated by Jodie Burrage in the first round of Austin and by Varvara Gracheva in her opening match at Indian Wells.

Match highlights: Kvitova struggled with double faults in her initial service games on Tuesday, losing an early lead as Kenin effectively used drop shots in the first set comeback. Kenin secured the first set with a drop shot, recovering from a 2-0 deficit.

Kenin reached her first match point at 5-4 in the second set, but Kvitova responded with a powerful serve to escape and level the score at 5-5. However, Kvitova couldn’t maintain her defense, and a forehand error in a later game gave Kenin two more match points.

On Kenin’s second match point, Kvitova’s backhand went wide, and Kenin advanced to the second round. Kvitova had a higher count of winners than Kenin, but her 36 unforced errors were double Kenin’s 18.